Hand saw

A hand saw is a woodworking tool used to cut wood into shape without powered assistance, its blade lined with a row of teeth made of a substance harder than the wood being cut. Two basic tooth patterns developed across cultures: crosscut saws, ground with knife-like edges to sever the wood fibers when cutting across the grain, and rip saws, ground with chisel-like teeth to cut cleanly along the grain. Handles were traditionally turned from applewood, a preference strong enough that an estimated two million board feet of applewood went into saw handles annually in the early twentieth century. The tool has ancient roots: Egyptian hieroglyphics depict early woodworkers sawing, bow saws have been recovered in Japan, and Roman hand saws survive from the first to third centuries AD, with bronze the likely blade material before steelmaking became widespread. How far the saw developed in a given society depended on its need for wood, its metalworking technology, its available power sources, and the specific cutting tasks it faced.